Alex watched him walk away, then turned to Carly. “So this is your church, huh?”
Carly nodded and yawned as she experienced an adrenaline crash.
“Maybe I’ll come here sometime, check the place out.”
“You’ll be welcome.”
Jacobs stepped into the sanctuary. “Carly, we’re ready for you.”
“Okay.” She got up and followed the lieutenant into Veronica’s office, where everyone else was seated.
“Edwards.” Wiley handed her a cup of coffee. Obviously someone had made a 7-Eleven run. “You look like you could use this.”
“Thank you.” Carly took the coffee as her stomach reminded her that she’d had nothing to eat all day. She and Nick had never made it to breakfast.
“Your timing for this little incident was impeccable,” Nelson said. “I was with Wiley, and ICE said they were just about ready to set up on the church. Then we heard the news that you caught Boxer at Trejo’s. By the time we got there we had to slow him down, he was so eager to talk.”
“And you saved ICE a surveillance team,” Wiley said. “It looks as if Sperry’s desperation played right into our hands. Thanks.”
“Really, good work, Trouble. Chaos seems to become you,” Jacobs said. His phone rang, and when he looked at the caller ID, he cursed. “Garrison.” He and Nelson shared a look Carly pretended not to see. “I’d better talk to him.” He left the room to take the call.
“Why don’t we have a seat and piece this thing together.” Nelson pointed to a chair, and Carly sat.
“Still no word from the airport,” he said, answering her unasked question. “But Casper has stated unequivocally that Conrad Sperry ordered the attack on Trejo as well as the trip here to bully Jonah Rawlings.”
“Glad he isn’t screaming for a lawyer.”
“A lot of people are. He’s corroborating much of what Boxer had to say. What happened here?” Wiley asked as he clicked on a recorder.
Blowing out a breath, Carly started from the beginning with Trejo’s text message and attack. Once or twice Wiley asked questions, but Nelson was quiet.
“Conrad Sperry will be charged with ordering the assault on Nick and me and probably a lot more charges ICE will add, right?”
Wiley and Nelson exchanged a look she couldn’t decipher before Wiley spoke up. “Yeah, ICE and the bureau both have a list of charges. Especially after Riverside. What has surprised everyone is how long Sperry has been at this.”
“What you may not remember,” Nelson said, “is that before Sperry was forced to quit the reserves, there was suspicion building that the reason he wanted to be a reserve was so he would have access to law enforcement–only information. We couldn’t prove it and then didn’t have to when he got caught red-handed tampering with evidence.”
Wiley continued. “There were signs of Sperry’s activities back then that federal investigators missed, and as a result, a lot of people have been victimized by the man. We could have prevented a lot, so right now ICE and the task force are committed to building a solid, ironclad case.”
“So Sperry will go away for a long time.”
“Yes, and though it hasn’t gone out to the press yet, we found another underground area, right on the border.”
“Sperry’s?”
“Yep. He dug right under the border fence. This wasn’t just a hole in the ground; it was a sophisticated underground highway.”
“ICE calls Sperry a modern-day slave trader,” Nelson added. “He brought people in, used them at his businesses, and also sold people to others just as exploitive as he is. ICE knew his operation was big, but the scope is staggering.”
Carly’s mind raced to keep up. She knew human trafficking was modern-day slavery. She’d even rescued a woman once who had been brought across the border illegally and forced to work in prostitution. The human trafficker often promised foreign-born individuals legitimate work to get them across the border. But once the workers arrived, the trafficker would take all their IDs and threaten them with jail—or worse—if they tried to escape. The trafficker instilled in them a fear of police and sometimes forced them to live in squalid conditions. It had been heartbreaking to rescue the one woman and to hear what she’d been through. To think that Sperry had brought thousands across the border to live in servitude made Carly sick to her stomach.
“How do the diamonds fit in?”
“That gets murky,” Wiley said. “We think he was trying to fence them, but he also used them as bribes—or, as it turns out, the promise of bribes. I think he knew we were closing in on him. He paid off two border patrol agents in San Diego, near where we found the tunnel, to throw us off the scent. People had to look the other way for him to get out of the noose we were closing around his neck, and the sparkle of diamonds turned heads. He was set to make a payment yesterday. But we showed up instead and have the two agents in custody, caught waiting for their payoff.”
“As far as Harper goes, he just had rotten luck. He obviously misinterpreted something Sperry said about a baby. What he did may have been bad for A.J.,” Nelson said with a shrug, “but it threw Sperry off his game, especially when his keys disappeared.”
“They were safe keys.”
“Right. Apparently Sperry thought the remote location in Riverside was the best place for his most important safe. And when the keys disappeared, he panicked. He wanted them back, and that’s why Caswell showed up so fast. When they realized that Harper didn’t have them when he was booked, they just wanted him out of jail and out of the picture as soon as possible.”
“And they needed the keys. That’s why they snatched Mary Ellen and took her out to Riverside, not because they wanted the baby. She said she didn’t have them, which was a lie,” Wiley said with a smile. “She must have been smart enough to realize that once they had the keys, she was dead. It was a stroke of luck that reporter showed up when he did.” He looked out the window at the parking lot. “Hopefully Sperry will be in custody by the end of the day. ICE thinks he hoped to have the diamonds with him when he fled the country.”
The agent leaned back in his chair. “We’ve kept a lid on the tunnel for as long as we could, but it’s going to be all over the news later today. Indictments are coming down against Sperry and company when we hold the news conference.”
Jacobs had come back into the room, and he nodded. “Sperry may be slime, but he’s smart. And he hired a slick lawyer to work all the angles. Thomas Caswell is as slick as they come.”
“And Caswell may go down with his client,” Wiley said. “I can’t divulge everything, but from what ICE has collected, Caswell was in the thick of things.”
“I knew that guy was dirty.” Nelson shook his head in disgust.
Carly drained her coffee. “What about Mary Ellen?”
“Good question. She must have the diamonds,” Nelson said. “What do you think she’ll do with them?”
“I don’t know—I’m not sure she knows what she has.” Carly stood. “But as long as Sperry is loose, she is in danger.”
Wiley shook his head. “Sperry’s on the run. I don’t believe he can hurt her now. Maybe we should ask her uncle to do some kind of televised plea, asking her to turn herself in. It’s probably safe now for her to raise her head.”
“That will only help if she’s somewhere near a television. I want to hike around in the catch basin. Nick and I never made it there yesterday. And Harper’s car is still outstanding; that has to be her mode of transport. Maybe we should even keep the catch basin as a DCC.”
“I’ll make that happen.” Nelson cast a glance at Wiley. “What’s your game plan?”
Wiley stood. “First things first: we need to thoroughly interview everyone who is in custody.”
“I’m sure the ones who won’t talk are screaming for Caswell,” Carly said.
“Yeah, where is he?” Jacobs asked.
Wiley shook his head. “I’ve paged him twice. He may be our next BOLO.”
“Then I’l
l check the catch basin on my way to the station to file my report,” Carly said.
Nelson gave her a mock salute. “We’ll tell DHS to expect you in a bit.”
37
AS CARLY WALKED BACK to the plain car, her backpack in one hand and Nick’s shoulder holster in the other, she felt the excitement of an investigation coming to a close, of loose ends being tied up. Surely when Mary Ellen learns that the man threatening her is on the run and his goons are in jail, she’ll surface.
At the trunk, she pondered the equipment she had available to her as she thought about what she should carry down into the catch basin. She had her gun and Nick’s, the cuffs they’d used on Casper and Gold Tooth, and her cell phone but no radio. Looking down at her small off-duty weapon and Nick’s 9mm, she decided that while she didn’t expect any trouble, she wanted to look official. She shortened the straps on the shoulder holster and slipped it on, then clipped her badge to a hook on the left strap. After locking her gun in the trunk, she turned as she heard Alex protesting the fact that DHS wanted to talk to him some more. He cast a glance her way as if asking for help, but she shrugged, then got in her car and left.
This time Carly made the turn to the catch basin without the drama of any other vehicles barreling her way. As the plain car bounced down the bumpy road, Carly’s mind wandered a bit. She found herself thinking about Nick and how normal things were between them. A smile played on her lips as she realized he’d stopped pushing her away and had instead become a partner of sorts over the last couple of days. With a sigh, she wondered how many stitches his head wound rated.
Once stopped at the gate, she pulled out her phone to call him and ask. His voice mail kicked in right away, and she knew he’d probably turned the phone off at the hospital. She left a message, telling him where she was and to call if he needed a ride from the hospital because she didn’t think she’d be long. Next she sent dispatch a message, informing them of her location as well.
Carly pulled Nick’s keys out of the ignition, knowing he’d have a gate key on his ring. All officers were issued an SM6 key, a master key for all city-owned padlocks in Las Playas. She fumbled for it as she climbed out of the car. Holding the key, she grabbed the lock, but it came open in her hand. It had been put through the chain and made to look secure but hadn’t actually been latched.
She frowned. No wonder the homeless got in so easily if public service didn’t bother to lock up. She unhooked the lock, pushed the gate open, and returned to the car. There were about five hundred more level feet, and then the road dropped to go down to a footpath that led under the bridge. She’d started down the hill before she saw the other car. It was a brand-new BMW with paper plates parked at the beginning of the footpath.
There was no dope to be scored down here. Besides that, it was broad daylight. Carly parked behind the BMW, got out of the car, and looked around. She didn’t see anyone, only a lot of tall weeds. Maybe this car belongs to public service, she thought. A supervisor coming to check things out. That would explain the open gate. Whoever owned the car had to be a city employee to get the lock open without cutting it.
Carly checked the car out but couldn’t see much because of the tinted windows. As she was about to continue past it, she heard the hum of a Chevy motor. A black-and-white pulled in behind her plain car.
Thinking it was a unit here for a DCC, she started back to greet the officers. But only one man got out of the car: Captain Garrison. Carly stopped between the BMW and her car and faced the scowling captain.
“What are you doing here? I thought you were at the church.”
Carly took a deep breath. If this had been Jake, the banter would have been friendly and upbeat. But she had no clue how to talk to Garrison other than “yes, sir” and “no, sir.” “I finished there. I came here to double-check for Mary Ellen.”
He seemed to consider this as he hitched up his gun belt. He rarely wore a duty belt. Carly could only remember seeing him with a belt holster.
He gestured toward the BMW. “Do you know whose car this is?”
She shook her head. “No plates.”
“It belongs to Thomas Caswell.”
Carly looked from the car to Garrison. “What is he doing here?”
“Good question.” He stepped closer. At six-four, he towered over Carly. “I know you don’t like me, and I have a problem with the fact that you have a tendency to disobey orders, but something is amiss with Caswell and I plan on finding out what.”
Carly thought she managed to keep her jaw from dropping. “Do we need backup?”
“No, I’ll handle this. I need to handle this. You just stay quiet and follow my orders; clear?”
Nodding, Carly said nothing. His tone made her angry, and she didn’t want to say something that would get her in trouble. All the negative things she’d heard about Garrison in the course of her career came roaring into her thoughts. Pompous, not a leader, arrogant, self-serving . . .
When he moved past her to continue down the trail, she followed, praying he knew what he was doing, but more importantly for protection in case he didn’t.
The area under the bridge was clean as a whistle, as Pete had said. There wasn’t even much paper trash lying around. She knew there were some hiding places that would be dark in spite of the daylight, and she wished she’d brought a flashlight. Still, hearing nothing but the sound of traffic on the overpass above, she was inclined to believe no homeless had set up camp yet. Neither was it likely that Mary Ellen was here.
“It’s been years since I’ve been down here,” Garrison said, and Carly wondered if he was talking to her or himself.
They were almost to the other side of the bridge when she heard voices. The captain must have heard them as well because he stopped.
“He’s not alone,” Garrison whispered. He looked at Carly, and for the first time she could remember, his eyes were cop eyes—flat, appraising, alert, not a trace of arrogant condescension. “I’m going to take the direct approach. You circle around.” He gestured left. “I don’t know what we have here, but you be ready for anything.”
Carly bit her tongue and nodded, thinking he almost sounded like a partner but wanting to call for backup just the same. He turned away before she could bring it up. Garrison made noise as he pushed through the growth; it was mostly bamboo, thick and green, and the scraping of his large body moving through it was plain. She took advantage of the sound to split left quickly.
She could hear the voices but couldn’t make out what was being said. The brush all but swallowed her up, even though there was a path of sorts through the growth. As she crouched low and made her roundabout way to the voices, she understood why homeless and runaways and people hiding liked it in the catch basin. It was a way to escape prying eyes.
The direction of the path led farther down, into the flood control. Abruptly, the foliage ended and the path opened into a clear spot where another car was parked. She stopped and could only see the top of the roof. Looking right, Carly realized this car had come through the same gate she had, but the driver had continued on, probably driving part of the way on the concrete banks of the flood control since there didn’t appear to be any way through the brush. A gutsy person determined to hide.
Carly moved closer for a better view of the car, then stayed still. Now the voices of Caswell and another were clear. She listened and studied the car. It was a two-door compact, and both doors were open. Debris was all over the ground as if it had come from the car. There was a man halfway inside the car while the lawyer stood just outside. Garrison hadn’t yet made his presence known. Carly realized they probably hadn’t needed to worry about stealth—Caswell and his associate were involved in a heated argument and oblivious to what was going on around them.
“Where else would she hide it?” the somewhat-muffled voice of the man inside the car said.
“How should I know?” Caswell sounded petulant. “I’m not a mechanic! Get someone down here to take this piece of junk apart if you
don’t know where to look.”
She heard the other man curse. “I’ve trusted too much to people who work for me lately.” He stood and smacked the car’s trunk hard enough to make Carly flinch. But he was facing the opposite direction, so she couldn’t see his face.
“That stupid girl must have it with her.” When he turned, Carly gasped. It was Conrad Sperry. His face was red, either from anger or exertion. He was a tall man shaped like a pear; four years ago, when she worked with him, Carly had wondered how he’d ever passed the physical agility portion of the reserve test. Obviously he hadn’t done any working out since she’d seen him last.
Carly dropped to one knee, holding her breath and hoping she wouldn’t be seen if the men looked her way.
“She’s not as stupid as you seem to think. She’s eluded capture this long.” Caswell’s tone was almost taunting.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Sperry’s red face was nearly purple now.
“Just that I warned you about hiring Harper. And I suggested a safe-deposit box for your valuables.”
Carly saw Garrison step out of the brush, but Caswell’s back was to him.
“Speaking of the failings of people who work for me, if you’d gotten that thief out of jail, none of this would—” Sperry saw the captain.
Caswell turned, following Sperry’s startled expression.
“Norman, what on earth are you doing here?” The lawyer was clearly as surprised as Sperry.
“I could ask you the same question.” Garrison gestured toward the car. “That’s a wanted vehicle, and you two are destroying evidence.”
Carly’s gaze went back to the car. He was right—it was Harper’s car with the plates Mary Ellen had stolen. Fear grabbed her by the throat. Where was Mary Ellen?
Sperry’s hands went to his hips. “I’m looking for what’s mine.”
“Norman,” Caswell spoke, and his voice was soothing, the voice he used to convince juries to pity his clients. “It’s just a car. A car once owned by a dead thief. Surely you can overlook Conrad’s pursuit of his own property?”
Abducted Page 23
